The Oath

If you think that the wave of fine documentaries dealing with just how bad the Bush administration royally screwed up the aftermath of September 11,even with Bush out of the White House has ceased,guess again. 'The Oath',the second part of a trilogy of films,tells yet,another story of what we don't know (but should). Two life long friends,Nassar al Bahri, and Salim Hamdan,long before the events of 9/11,found themselves introduced to Osama Bin Laden,and some of the chief members of Al Qaeda, and went to work for them (with Nassar having his name changed to Abu Jandal by Osama Bin Laden,himself). When America was attacked by Al Qaeda,both were arrested,and put in prison,with Abu Jandal released some time later,while Salim found himself detained in Guantanomo prison in Cuba (where he still remains today). In a series of interview footage,and news stories from the major American television networks, documentary film maker,Laura Poitras ('Flag Wars',and one episode of P.O.V.:My Country,My Country-the first film in the series)attempts to make sense of a nonsensical situation. This is a documentary that like 'My Country,My Country',is sure to touch it's share of raw nerves, in both the left,as well as the conservative far right. Spoken in Arabic with English subtitles,and English. Not rated by the MPAA,but contains some disturbing spoken testimony.

Sadly, once again, we are confronted with a film crafted by a director who loses sight of the most important consideration: what does the viewer see? Story line, audio levels, camera angles, editing considerations are trivial details if the viewer has no way of understanding what is being spoken. This movie is spoken in Arabic, with English subtitles. The problem is that the subtitles of the translated Arabic are one quarter of the size of the subtitles of the SDH English subtitles. And, if that weren't bad enough, the subtitles are in white, often white on white, nearly impossible to read. And absolutely impossible to read at the speed necessary to keep up with the rapid dialogue and the rapidly changing subtitles. I was so looking forward to hearing what these Al Qaeda members had to say. It's too bad that the director wasn't sufficiently interested in allowing me that opportunity.

In 2001 Afganistan, Salim Hamdan is captured and sent to Guantanamo Bay. Abu Jandal is his brother-in-law, Osama bin Laden's former bodyguard from 1996 to 2000 and now a taxi driver in Sana'a, Yemen. He left to fight Jihad in Bosnia as a 19 year old from Saudi Arabia. He had recruited many including Salim Hamdan. He pledged an oath to Bin Laden. Hamdan wins a suit against the government to get his day in court.

The scariest thing about Abu Jandal teaching Hamden's son is the smile of the innocent. Abu Jandal has the crazy eyes of a true believer or a pathological liar. This is a showcase of just how intractable these enemies of America truly are. The missing element is a more in-depth investigation of Abu Jandal other than his own words. They need to dig to confirm everything. By his own words, his intentions are to influence people depending on his audience and it's questionable to trust everything he says.

Laura Poitras has crafted a brilliant piece of film that tells the complex and many faceted story of the film's 2 central characters.

Frankly I was shocked to see such a layered, nuanced and complex film from an American filmmaker; as opposed to the flaccid, sterile one dimensional pablum be usually see from American media; there is no subject so important to mankind that we can't dumb down into 30 minutes of Melba toast.

Although the story itself is deep, shocking and sad on so many levels ... I felt strangely uplifted at the end.

Encouraged that there are still filmmakers out there willing to go beyond the simplistic and pathetically uninformed fabrications of events from a very narrow good or bad points of view. To get to the dark, complex underbelly of events where things are not as crisp and clean and clear as we would like, but far more relevant and important.

We felt compassion for the former body guard/cab driver for the predicament he is now in, clearly a man who wanted to do what he felt was right and to stick to his word that he told The Dialogue he would.

Well done, I will seek out t her work in the future. Whether or not I will agree or disagree with her position I do not know, but I know I will like how she gets us there.